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Taylah Amal
Ensign Taylah Amal is currently assigned as an Engineering Officer on the USS Odyssey. __TOC__ Statistics *Species: Bajoran/Cardassian hybrid, raised within the Bajoran culture *Height: 172cm *Gender: NB *Age: 30 *Hair Colour: Black *Eye Colour: Dark Background Information Amal is a non binary Bajoran/Cardassian hybrid brought up in an orphanage on Bajor, having been abandoned there as a newborn infant. They spent much of their childhood primarily as a social outcast due to their heritage. They remained the only child of their age group never to be fostered or adopted, and became a rather solitary child as their age mates left to be replaced by new faces, discovering a fondness for repairing and expanding the orphanage’s often-failing systems. They joined the Bajoran military aged 17, as soon as they became too old for the orphanage, as an engineer. They continued to find life difficult, particularly as many of their superiors had formerly been resistance fighters who had retained many of their old prejudices, but found that they could gain a place of a kind due to their competence and dedication to their work - “they might be a Cardyspawn, but they can keep a ship in the sky even when it's falling to bits and on fire - and walk away from the landing and rebuild it better than new for you the next day!” In the military, they maintained the same quiet, self-contained, solid persona, rarely expressing much emotion or much passion except where there work was concerned, which had stood them so well in childhood. This continued until, a few years into their service, they fell passionately in love with a young Bajoran pilot named Elik. The son of two Bajoran refugees who had sought safety in Federation space before returning after the Occupation was over, Elik was a devil-may-care, cosmopolitan, handsome young man who swept the quiet young engineer off their feet. They opened like a flower under Elik’s passion - and were devastated when he was killed heroically in the final days of the Dominion war saving a disabled Bird of Prey from being destroyed by the Breen. Despite the sympathy offered by their colleagues, they threw themselves into their work to avoid the memories. They became a member of Starfleet when the two forces were recently merged, a few years after Bajor’s membership of the Federation was finally ratified. Due to their hard work, capability and focus, they had risen to a position of some responsibility in the military, and were commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in Starfleet. They are now on their first posting in Starfleet proper - their first time posted amongst non-Bajorans and their first time serving amongst people of a variety of species. They find so many aliens both exciting and disconcerting - it's entirely odd not to be the most distinctive person in a given place, and many of the people they meet here remind them painfully of Elik’s openness, warmth, enthusiasm, and trust. It's disconcerting to be around so many people without literal or metaphorical scars. Amal is quietly but devotedly religious. They wear an earring on duty, and pray several times a day at a personal shrine to the Prophets which is the most striking feature of their quarters. They miss being able to attend proper Temple services, and often send for holo-recordings of popular preachers and religious scholars from Bajor. They are still uncomfortable in a Starfleet uniform and dress in a mix of their old rust uniform and Bajoran civilian clothing whenever they are off-duty. They are utterly dedicated to their profession, and spend much of their leisure time reading technical journals and working on personal projects to improve the ship. Physically, they are a slight, medium-sized Bajoran with a uterus and small, unobtrusive breasts which they sometimes flatten. They have very straight dark hair, with an undercut but long on top, generally combed neatly to one side. They have large dark eyes and pale rather than grey skin, with delicate features, Bajoran nose ridges, and fine Cardassianesque ridges, though far less obvious and more delicate than any full-blooded Cardassian would possess. There is some old, silvered scarring around their right eye socket, cheek and ear; legacy of a self-harm attempt in early adolescence when they attempted to cut their Cardassian features from their face, and the orphanage did not have access to medical equipment sufficient to heal it without mark. They have elected not to remove it since joining Starfleet as they have been too used to it for too many years now.